Second Seminole War - Florida Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

War on the Frontier
The opening of the Second Seminole War began during the first week of December 1835. Seminole, along with their Black allies, attacked and burned hundreds of farms and homesteads in the Payne's Prairie region, the center of white settlement in the wilderness interior and the site of the former Seminole homeland. With the majority of Seminoles in agreement to resist removal, Osceola and the other war leaders launched several key assaults to settle old scores and send a message of resistance.
Events escalated on December 18 when Osceola led a surprise attack on a Florida militia supply train headed toward Micanopy. Dubbed the Battle of Black Point this engagement confirmed that native forces were totally committed to war. On the same day as Dade's Massace (December 28), Osceola shot and killed General Wiley Thompson, the Indian removal agent, as well as others in his entourage just outside Fort King (present Ocala). In the following months the Seminole successfully resisted counter-attacks by Generals Duncan Clinch and Edmund Gaines at the Withlacoochee River. After the evacuation of General Winfield Scott's "grand army" of 5,000 troops, all the interior forts were left vulnerable. Indeed, an attack on Fort Defiance, called the Battle of Micanopy, and an ambush directed on an evacuation troop convoy at Welika Pond, west of Micanopy, evinced the ability and resolve of the Seminole to take the war to the Army. After General Thomas Jesup succeeded in capturing hundreds of warriors as well as Black forces, and after years of warfare began to take a stark toll, an increasing number of Seminole leaders considered surrender and removal. By 1842, though some action still took place across Florida, the main body of Seminole was much reduced, some imprisoned, and many already relocated in the west.

The War Comes to Micanopy
The Seminole ambush on an Army wagon train of supplies for Ft. Defiance at Black Point on December 18th, 1835 was a glimpse of things to come on the Florida frontier. During the attack 8 militia troops are killed and 6 wounded. The survivors flee to Ft. Defiance as the doomed wagon train is sacked.

The Cost of War...
The Second Seminole War was the longest, bloodiest, and most costly Indian War in United States history. The human cost was high and at least 1,500 U.S. Soldiers died in battle, disease and service related injuries. A large number of civilian lives were also lost during the conflict. The number of Native American lives may never be known as a result of starvation and disease, warfare, and the very act and later consequences of their relocation to the West. By 1842, the enormous cost was taxing the nation and it was evident that the continued prosecution of the war was simply not cost effective. Federal budget cutting strategy in 1842 coupled with a new reservation line limiting white settlement in south Florida signaled the end was near. In the end the Seminoles remained unconquered.

Osceola was born of mixed Creek and white ancestry in Alabama in 1804. His Creek name Asi Yahola (black drink singer) was pronounced by white people as "Osceola." His family was allied with the Red Sticks and following the Creek War they became refugees in Florida. Osceola and many other young warriors followed in the same militant spirit that began in the early part of the century by the Shawnee war chief Tecumseh. Despite the military defeats inflicted by General Andrew Jackson, it was this sense of a transcendent struggle against the incursions of the white man, reinforced by the Seminoles' own prophets and spirit guides, that played a key role in solidifying and maintaining support for the Second Seminole War.
Osceola led Seminole warriors during the opening phase of the war and his repeated success on the battlefield turned him into a celebrity. He was captured while under a flag of truce by General Jesup in 1837 and imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S.C. This disreputable capture brought severe criticism upon Jesup and elicited sympathy for the Seminoles. After Osceola's death in prison on January 30, 1838, the reaction of the newspaper press catapulted him to unprecedented renown and he became the country's most famous Native American.

Marker Number: None Date: 2017 County: Alachua Marker Type: Roadside Sponsored or placed by: Micanopy Trust for Historical Forts and Battlefields, Town of Micanopy, Gulf Archaeology Research Institute, Crystal River, FL, Micanopy Historical Society, Micanopy Chamber of Commerce, Nichols Lumber Company, Dunnellon, FL, Sandpiper Sign & Screen Print Website: Not listed

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